DECT or DECT/Cat-iq (Cordless Advanced Technology—internet and quality) protocols and devices are known to provide efficient and reliable communication of a speech data, e.g. by means of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication, between a wireless handset and a base station.
In small systems, a self-contained base station has a limited number of wireless handsets registered thereto. Such systems are rather economic and simple to install, but it is impossible to enhanced wireless coverage and increase the number of handsets outside the limit of the base station, unless repeater devices are used.
In traditional larger setups for VoIP, a number of spatially distributed base stations communicate with a central server with software that manages to centrally control calls to/from a plurality of mobile wireless handsets. Hand-over or roaming between base stations, i.e. when a handset moves out of reach of one base station and into the coverage range of another base station, is also handled by the central the server. Such systems offer scalability, since it is often possible for the central server to manage addition of extra base stations.
However, such central server setups suffer from several drawbacks. For small companies with a limited number of wireless handsets and a limited space covered by few base stations, a rather expensive and maintenance requiring central server is still needed for such system to function. Furthermore, in case an extension of such system is desired, the server configuration must be updated to handle one or more additional base stations. This may be rather complicated and thus requires a specialist, and therefore normal users are unable to perform such extension themselves. A dedicated server is a relative large overhead for small system configurations.